Graffiti and litter linked to obesity – 20 August, 2005
www.Breaking News English.com
Ready-to-use ESL / EFL Lessons
Graffiti and litter linked to obesity
URL: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0508/050820-graffiti.html
Today’s contents
The Article / 2Warm-ups / 3
Before Reading / Listening / 4
While Reading / Listening / 5
After Reading / 6
Discussion / 7
Speaking / 8
Listening Gap Fill / 9
Homework / 10
Answers / 11
20 August, 2005
THE ARTICLE
Graffiti and litter linked to obesity
BNE: British researchers have discovered a link between graffiti and obesity in adults in a Europe-wide study. City dwellers living in rundown areas with little vegetation and high levels of graffiti, litter and other signs of urban decay are more likely to be obese than those living in affluent areas with lots of greenery. This is according to a study published on August 19 on the British Medical Journal website.Report author Anne Ellaway said: “People who live in more pleasant and attractive environments, which in our study was assessed by levels of greenery, are much more likely to be physically active and not to be overweight or obese. Conversely, in less attractive areas, those with lots of graffiti, litter and dog mess, people are more likely to be overweight or obese and to take less exercise.”
The team suggested that: “The likelihood of being more physically active is about 50 per cent less, and the likelihood of being overweight or obese is about 50 per cent higher” in poorer neighborhoods. They concluded: “In efforts to promote physical activity and reduce weight…attention should be paid to environmental facilitators and barriers as well as individual factors.”
Report - Graffiti, greenery, and obesity in adults: secondary analysis of European cross sectional survey. Anne Ellaway, Sally Macintyre, Xavier Bonnefoy
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/rapidpdf/bmj.38575.664549.F7v1
WARM-UPS
1. MY NEIGHBORHOOD: Talk to your partner(s) about your neighborhood. Is it a healthy place to live? Use these words to help your conversation: green / healthy / well kept / safe / picturesque / rundown / polluted / filthy / built up / affluent.
2. URBAN DECAY: In pairs / groups, talk about what you think when you see the following things on city streets. Do you see these things often? Think of reasons why these things are there and who’s responsible.
· Graffiti· Litter
· Dog (or other animal) mess
· Cars with no wheels
· Boarded up store windows / · Used syringes
· Broken bottles
· Abandoned, broken TV sets
· Calling cards offering sexual services
· Human urine
3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.
Researchers / graffiti / obesity / urban decay / affluent areas / litter / dog mess / exercise / poor neighborhoods / reduce weight
Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.
4. GRAFFITI: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “graffiti”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.
5. OPINIONS: How far do you agree with the following opinions on graffiti?
a. Graffiti is a wonderful hobby.
b. Graffiti brings down the tone of any neighborhood.
c. Graffiti is pure vandalism and destruction of property.
d. Graffiti happens because of broken down community relations.
e. A lot of graffiti is serious art and should be in museums.
f. Areas of cities should be donated to graffiti artists as a focus for their work.
g. More graffiti would make the city look more beautiful.
h. Graffiti is an excellent way of losing weight.
i. Graffiti artists are criminals and should spend time behind bars.
j. Doing graffiti leads individuals to more serious crimes.
6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think there is a strong link between areas with graffiti and obesity. Students B think there is no link at all. Change partners often.
BEFORE READING / LISTENING
1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
a. / Graffiti artists are more likely to become obese in their later years. / T / Fb. / City dwellers run down stairs quickly if there is a lot of graffiti. / T / F
c. / People living in affluent areas with lots of greenery are less obese. / T / F
d. / Those living in cities are more physically active. / T / F
e. / Dog mess on the streets discourages people from exercising. / T / F
f. / You are four times less likely to exercise if you live in a rundown area. / T / F
g. / No attention should be paid to our environment in promoting exercise. / T / F
h. / A report suggests physical barriers in cities to be used for exercise. / T / F
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
a. / link / well-to-dob. / rundown / contrarily
c. / decay / measured
d. / affluent / chance
e. / environments / impoverished
f. / assessed / feces
g. / conversely / surroundings
h. / mess / connection
i. / likelihood / push
j. / promote / rot
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
a. / a Europe-wide / decayb. / rundown / to promote physical activity
c. / urban / physically active
d. / affluent areas / of being overweight
e. / much more likely to be / areas
f. / lots of graffiti, litter and dog / with lots of greenery
g. / take / study
h. / the likelihood / be paid to…
i. / efforts / less exercise
j. / attention should / mess
WHILE READING / LISTENING
GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text.
Graffiti and litter linked to obesity
BNE: British researchers have discovered a ______between graffiti and obesity in adults in a Europe-wide study. City ______living in ______areas with little vegetation and high levels of graffiti, litter and other signs of ______decay are more likely to be obese than those living in ______areas with lots of greenery. This is according to a study published on August 19 on the British Medical Journal website. / rundownurban
dwellers
affluent
link
Report ______Anne Ellaway said: “People who live in more pleasant and attractive environments, which in our study was ______by levels of ______, are much more likely to be physically active and not to be overweight or obese. Conversely, in less attractive areas, those with lots of graffiti, ______and dog ______, people are more likely to be overweight or obese and to take less exercise.” / litter
mess
assessed
greenery
author
The team ______that: “The likelihood of being more physically active is about 50 per cent ______, and the likelihood of being overweight or obese is about 50 per cent higher” in poorer neighborhoods. They concluded: “In efforts to ______physical activity and reduce weight…______should be paid to environmental facilitators and barriers as well as ______factors.” / promote
suggested
individual
attention
less
AFTER READING / LISTENING
1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘urban’ and ‘decay’.
· Share your findings with your partners.
· Make questions using the words you found.
· Ask your partner / group your questions.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
· Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
· Ask your partner / group your questions.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?
4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.
5. STUDENT “GRAFFITI AND LITTER” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about the link between graffiti, litter and obesity.
· Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
· Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
· Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.
6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
· link· rundown
· decay
· affluent
· pleasant
· levels / · conversely
· mess
· likelihood
· poorer
· attention
· individual
DISCUSSION
STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
a. What were your initial thoughts on this headline?
b. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
c. What are your thoughts on the link between graffiti and obesity?
d. What do you think about graffiti?
e. Is your neighborhood conducive to a healthy lifestyle?
f. What do you think when you see lots of graffiti and litter?
g. Should cities create more parks and exercise facilities?
h. What penalties should be given to graffiti artists and litterbugs?
i. Does your neighborhood have a policy towards dog mess?
j. What do you think of studies such as the one in the article?
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
a. Did you like reading this article?
b. What do you think about what you read?
c. What other factors are there linking obesity with living environment?
d. Would you rather live in the inner city or the leafy suburbs?
e. Why do you think people who live in areas with graffiti and litter are more likely to be overweight?
f. Do you think another study might find that people who live in rundown areas are in fact less obese than suburban dwellers?
g. What is the answer to eradicating graffiti, litter and dog mess?
h. What kind of rundown areas are there in your town or city?
i. What other problems do people living in rundown areas have?
j. Did you like this discussion?
AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.
a. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
b. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
c. Was there a question you didn’t like?
d. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
e. What did you like talking about?
f. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
g. Which was the most difficult question?
SPEAKING
URBAN RENEWAL: You are head of your neighborhood council on making your poor, rundown area safer and more beautiful. In pairs / groups, you must think of ways to end the problems listed in the left column forever. You must also think of suitable punishments for offenders.
HOW TO END THE PROBLEMS / PUNISHMENTSGraffiti
Litter
Dog mess
Used syringes
Broken bottles
Calling cards offering sexual services
Human urine
Change partners and compare your methods to eradicate the problems and your punishments. Give each other feedback.
With your original partner(s), take turns to role play a conversation between the neighborhood head and the city mayor (who wants to spend more money on the nicer areas of the city).
LISTENING
Listen and fill in the spaces.
Graffiti and litter linked to obesity
BNE: British researchers have discovered ______between graffiti and obesity in adults in a Europe-wide study. City ______living in rundown areas with little vegetation and high levels of graffiti, litter and other signs of ______are more likely to be obese than those living in ______areas with lots of greenery. This is according to a study published on August 19 on the British Medical Journal website.
Report ______Anne Ellaway said: “People who live in more pleasant and attractive environments, which in our study was ______by levels of greenery, are much more likely to be ______active and not to be overweight or obese. Conversely, in less attractive areas, those with lots of graffiti, litter and ______, people are more likely to be overweight or obese and to take less exercise.”
The team suggested that: “The ______of being more physically active is about 50 per cent less, and the likelihood of being overweight or obese is about 50 per cent higher” in ______neighborhoods. They concluded: “In efforts to ______physical activity and reduce weight…attention should be ______to environmental facilitators and ______as well as individual factors.”
HOMEWORK
1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.
2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on graffiti. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.
3. MY ENVIRONMENT: Write an essay describing your neighborhood and how it promotes health (or otherwise). Read the main points of your essays to your classmates in your next lesson. Do you all live in a healthy environment?